It's Christmas Time!!!!

Dear Abigail,

Guess what time of year it is???!!! That's right - Christmas!!!! We love some Christmas, you included. You are really getting into it this year. Last year you loved getting the presents, but this year you really get all the other fun stuff involved, like decorating and singing Christmas carols, and you LOVE you some Pinky, our elf, who every night magically flies to the North Pole to tell Santa what your behavior was for that day. You do NOT love it when I remind you that Pinky is watching, and listening, and will totally tell Santa when you are not a good listener... But overall, I'm pretty sure Pinky has been giving good reports. And I didn't even realized you knew so many Christmas carols. You are loving Jingle Bells, specifically the "HEY" part, which you are able to reach a whole new level of loudness :) And you love singing "My Two Front Teeth" but always ask "Why does he want his two front teeth for Christmas???". I tell you so he can eat carrots. You seem to accept that.

So, this past week, we got things fired up for the holiday season. Last Wednesday (after a VERY stressful move on Monday and Tuesday), we got all the decorations out that we had and got to work on our tree. Now, I know I haven't mentioned the move too much, or well, the details of it, and there is a reason (it's stresses Mommy out!), but you know we moved, and with that move came hardly any decorations (it's all in storage until we move in the new house). So, we were a little limited on our decorations this year - BUT, good news is we made the best of it. I got you and your sister in your matching Christmas pajamas, turned on some Christmas music, and we got to work!

You are starting to stick your tongue out a lot. I have let Pinky know about this, just in case she didn't see it...

You were being so silly with taking pictures that I had to show you how to smile. This is what I got in return...

I'm pretty sure I got what I asked for... So we got to work on our little tree and you helped hang up all the ornaments.

And about 10 minutes later, we were done!

I know it's not much, but all the ornaments on that tree had a special meaning. We started collecting ornaments from trips or just fun times we have over the year. Two beach trips and a trip to the aquarium included! So see, it may not be much, but it has meaning behind it! And doesn't your stocking look just perfect beside your sisters!!! So sweet...

We've been super busy with the short term move but managed to fit a play date with Jacob and Anna Porter. Thursday after your gymnastics we headed over to their house to get a little play time in. Anna is getting to be such a big girl now and loves her some baby Kate and you and Jacob, well, you played together, but you have a bad case of the tattles and let us know EVERY time Jacob did anything wrong! But you did some good playing time and Miss Kristin even set up a cookie decorating station! You and Jacob both went crazy on the sprinkles!!! So after lots of fun (and a huge mess in the kitchen for Miss Kristin to clean up) we headed to Memphis - yes,I know I said we were busy, but we had to get your little sister's 3 month pictures and a Christmas card picture with both of you. Fortunately Mr. Phil is really good and has a few more fancy skills with picture taking than your momma!!! We ate Mexican Saturday night with the entire family - like 17 of us (yes, insane) and then Saturday morning we headed back to town because our little town of Franklin had it's Christmas parade! We met Ellie and Aunt Steph and Miss Leigh and Ryan (Mr. Lee and Jake were somewhere further down because they had trouble parking and the parade started before they could get to us!!!). We got our typical spot beside CeCe's and got there in plenty of time to get our starbucks, like we do every year. You girlies looked so cute in your matching Christmas tree outfits and I came so close to getting a picture of the 2 of you smiling at the same time...

But that cute shirt got in the way!!!!! As expected, you needed to be held the entire parade. I knew it would happen as I watched the extremely large reindeer man lead the parade. Eventually my arm gave out (and your sister had to use the restroom, to put it nicely) so I handed you over to Daddy. He held you for a bit, but somehow convinced you to sit in the stroller beside Ellie! I was impressed, and I know Daddy's arm was relieved... I'm also pretty sure you and Ellie were getting mad about the lack of candy you were receiving. To the parade's defense, you 2 would NOT get out of your seats to go get any of that candy, so therefore, you did not get much at all...

And poor Ryan did not nap that day. Now that's not an issue for you, or really for Ellie either, but Ryan loves his nap time, and typically it's a pretty long one (Mommy and Aunt Steph are super envious!). Poor guy did not want to be at the parade and even asked to go home multiple times! But...soon enough the parade was over and after the parade, we headed over to Ryan's house to hang out for the rest of the afternoon/evening. You two played and played and played and destroyed both the upstairs and the downstairs, which we did clean the downstairs but now that I think about it, I don't think we straightened up the upstairs... sorry Miss Leigh :) We ate some pizza and decided the bed was the best place for both you and Ryan after that long day!

So, Sunday morning we got up and started getting VERY spifted up because we were going to see Santa Claus! Believe it or not, you were super excited about this. We talked and talked about how Sister would sit in his lap and you would stand beside him only. You made it very clear that there was no need for you to sit in his lap. But you were very eager to tell him what you wanted for Christmas and to talk to him about Pinky. We sang Christmas carols the whole way to see him and you were SO excited when you spotted him. We waited a little bit in line and then it was our turn. Of course, Daddy had to hold you, but, to our surprise, you did indeed stand right beside him!!!!

Now, it didn't last long at all, and I wasn't able to get a better picture, but when I went to get you sister from his arms I asked if you told him what you wanted for Christmas and Santa looked at me and said "Yes she did. She said she wanted Simba!" HA! I couldn't believe it. You did tell him what you wanted!!! I was so proud of you. No tears, and you even talked to him. You are getting to be such a big, brave girl. I sure hope you get that Simba for Christmas!! After visiting Santa, we ventured over to the carousel where you and Mommy took a little spin!

And then we headed over to Opryland Hotel where we walked all around and looked at the beautiful lights and decorations everywhere. It was so nice and we had such a good time. We had perfect timing, with coming on a Sunday when everyone was checking out, so we had no trouble wondering through the hotel with the double stroller or with letting you run on your own. We walked through shops and looked at the river...

and hugged huge horse things...
And just enjoyed being in this beautiful place with the four of us...

We headed to this sports bar place to eat lunch (so Daddy could at least watch some of the Titans game - yes, I'm nice like that) but when we got there I was a little concerned it wasn't a place for a 3 year old and a 2 month old. I also was pretty positive we took a traveling machine to Vegas! It was super nice with TVs everywhere and super swanky, but the hostess assured me it was fine for you, and when she handed me a coloring page and crayons, I knew we were safe. And it was Sunday and completely empty, so perfect!!! We had a lot of fun watching the game on all 300 TVs and you had fun tap dancing in the bathroom. See, you had your black shoes on, which you call your tap dancing shoes (I'm pretty sure from Elmo) and in the bathroom the whole wall was covered for what seemed like forever with mirrors, so you tapped and tapped and tapped your way down the bathroom. I just told Mimi that I didn't think dance would be your thing, but I may stand corrected!!! After we ate our lunch, you and I headed out to walk around while Daddy fed Kate (and watched a little more of the game, of course). We walked all around looking at all the hot air balloons and the crazy animals playing instruments while flying through the sky. Mommy even ran into someone she went to high school with! You were too involved in eating the candy cane one of the hotel peeps gave you. And some how you found mud to fall into. But after awhile, we were ready for a little dessert and low and behold, there was an ice cream place. You were POSITIVE you wanted chocolate - so, we got chocolate!

Soon enough we headed back to get Daddy and Kate and headed home. It was a beautiful and fun way to start our holiday season. Can't wait for the many, many more activities we'll do this year! Love you brave girl! Can't wait for Santa to come visit you either!!!